The GMB union has withdrawn its bid for recognition at Amazon’s Coventry warehouse, accusing the retail giant of employing ‘dirty tricks’ to ensure the union could not secure the necessary membership threshold.
After months of strike action at the Coventry warehouse, GMB said its membership had rocketed to 800 staff.
Last year, Amazon had 1,400 workers in Coventry, meaning that GMB members would have made up more than the 50% needed for statutory union recognition.
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However after the GMB made an application to the Central Arbitration Committee, Amazon said it employed 2,700 at the warehouse. This meant GMB no longer had the threshold to become a recognised union.
The union claimed the Coventry warehouse has been “flooded” with new employees since it began taking strike action. It believed this was “purely in response to GMB membership growing so close to the threshold for statutory union recognition”.
A further strike is planned for 12, 13 and 14 June.
GMB senior organiser Stuart Richards said: “Amazon has refused to pay workers a decent wage, but are now paying an additional 1,300 workers to try and bust the union. We estimate that’s more than £300,000 a week – just to stop workers having a voice in their workplace.
“This is more than it would cost to pay the original workforce the £15 an hour they were asking for. It’s dirty tricks, plain and simple.”
GMB said it had expressed concerns to the CAC about the accuracy of the information it had been provided by Amazon, and has accused it of “immoral anti-union tactics”.
“While we have no alternative but to withdraw the application for statutory recognition, but we’re not going away,” Richards said. “GMB members at Amazon are not giving up the fight for a wage they can live off and they won’t give up the fight for union recognition.”
An Amazon spokesperson said: “We respect our employees’ rights to join, or not to join, a union. We offer competitive pay, comprehensive benefits, opportunities for career growth, all while working in a safe, modern, work environment. At Amazon, these benefits and opportunities come with the job, as does the ability to communicate directly with the leadership of the company.
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“At Amazon, we regularly recruit new team members, across the country and across the year, providing great new career opportunities for thousands of people and to meet customer demand. This year is no different.”
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